No More Taxi Service to the International Space Station after the Soyuz Rocket Failure

Soyuz Rocket Failure drop down the global image for NASA which was a joint project for America and Russia.

WASHINGTON: The taxi service for the International Space Station on Orbit has no passengers until further notice.

Neither the United States nor Russia will be able to send astronauts to the ISS until researchers have determined why a Soyuz rocket failure after the start of Thursday, complicating an already difficult launch schedule in 2019..

The only way to bring Earth astronauts to the ISS since 2011 has been to use Russian Soyuz rockets.

But the Russian space agency Roscosmos stopped the rockets until an investigation led to the anomaly that forced US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.

Here are the questions and answers about the interruption of the ISS service:

Reason for Soyuz Rocket Failure, How long can the suspension last?

The next Soyuz launch for the ISS was scheduled for December 20 and is expected to bring a new team of three to the space station.

But we do not know how long it will be on land.

“If the delay is two or six months, I really can not speculate on that,” Kenny Todd, head of operations integration at the International Space Station, said during a press conference.

“They’re probably going to crush the Soyuz rockets for a while,” said Erik Seedhouse, an assistant professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Seedhouse, a specialist in aviation applied science, said it would last at least “a few months.”

In 2015, Progreso, an unmanned ship that sent supplies to the ISS, had problems similar to those found on Thursday by the Soyuz rocket.

However, the case on Thursday refers to a vehicle guarded by a man, “so there are much stricter requirements in the investigations,” Seedhouse told AFP news agency.

The European Space Agency has already recognized that the incident will affect the ISS calendar.

It is preparing contingency plans for the three current members of the ISS team: the German Alexander Gerst, the American Serena Aunon-Chancellor and the Russian Sergey Prokopiev, all of whom had to return to Earth in December, to stay longer in the station. Was expected.

One potential problem: the spacecraft that would allow the ISS crew to return to Earth, moored at the station in June, is equipped with batteries that lose power after about 200 days, NASA said.

In theory, this would reduce the time limit for the return of the crew to Earth in early January 2019, which is the only limiting factor, said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

As for the food, the crew has enough time to last, the station is regularly replenished by Japanese and American unmanned spacecraft.

When will the American rockets be ready?

NASA put aside the space shuttle program in 2011 and has since been paying tens of millions of dollars to Russia for sending astronauts to the ISS.

The contract with the Russians ends at the end of 2019, and the US space agency has agreements with two US companies, Boeing and SpaceX.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is also operated by the electric car manufacturer Tesla, will use its Falcon 9 rockets. Since 2012, SpaceX has launched satellites for NASA and completed 16 replacement missions in the ISS.

The sending of astronauts to the ISS will be the first for a private company.

However, the SpaceX rocket program, like that of Boeing, has experienced delays, as is often the case in the aerospace industry.

An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket, which carries a Dragon’s capsule, is expected to launch in January 2019, with a similar live launch scheduled for June 2019.

For Boeing, the launches are scheduled for March and August 2019, respectively.

What is the risk for NASA after the Soyuz Rocket Failure?

The problems of Soyuz are a headache for the United States, whose policy is to have a continuous presence in space.

An interruption would be disastrous in terms of image, but also for research on board the ISS, because the station in orbit serves as a scientific laboratory.

The minor delay of SpaceX or Boeing could delay the approval of its manned launch programs. This could mean that the first astronaut they would send to the ISS would leave in 2020 instead of 2019.

Soyuz Rocket Failure disaster for the name of NASA both economically and branding, due to which the investors might spectacle on them for the future projects, hope it recovers soon by finding the solution.

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